1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a cap design and, more particularly, to an improved shape of a cap made to produce a natural three-dimensional effect by using a pattern mold sheet presenting patterns instead of existing embroidery threads, which also provides variety by adjusting the level of patterns such as logos, symbols, emblems, letters, numbers and diagrams as desired by a company, person, or organization.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventional baseball style caps are generally comprised of a crown main body formed by a plurality of panels, and a visor portion that is secured to a forward edge of the crown and extends outwardly therefrom. Typically, patterns such as logos, symbols, emblems, letters, numbers and diagrams that a company, a person or an organization wants are displayed on such caps. Since plain and simple patterns presented only with embroidery threads often do not satisfy customers"" aesthetic wants, three-dimensional embroidery designs have been a recent trend.
Three-dimensional embroidery designs can be presented by adding two or more embroidery layers to an existing plane embroidery layer. However, the higher the embroidery layers grow, the more difficult it becomes to insert an embroidery needle into the fabric material, resulting in both reduced work efficiency, and increased cost due to the additional amount of embroidery thread being used.
To overcome such problems, a method of attaching a mold material made of soft polyethylene resin to a fabric material and stitching it with embroidery threads has been developed. Such a method, however, reduces both work and production efficiency, for additional embroidery work is needed to determine the position of the soft mold material and special attention must be paid to the process of manually attaching the soft mold material to the fabric material.
Another method has been developed for acquiring three-dimensional patterns projected on the surface by attaching a sheet to the surface of a fabric material and stitching both the fabric material and the sheet together, and then removing the residues not stitched along the tier lines formed as dots by embroidery needles during stitching. This method, however, has not completely eliminated defects such as naps on the stitched sheet caused in the process of representing three-dimensional patterns.
Therefore, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a cap structure that represents an improved three-dimensional effect without a nap on the surface of a sheet by using an additional pattern mold sheet in place of existing embroidery threads.
It is another object of the present invention to represent various kinds of three-dimensional effects by adjusting the level of the patterns.
In order to achieve the foregoing objects, the present invention provides an improved cap structure comprising a crown main body formed of a plurality of panels, with a visor portion secured to a forward edge of the crown and extending outwardly therefrom. The pattern mold sheet is formed to be of a size suitable for placement on the visor portion and is attached to another fabric material. The structure of the pattern mold sheet is generally composed of an upper stretchable fabric material or polyurethane, a sponge in the middle, and a lower fabric material.
The above pattern mold sheet is formed by the process of heating a sheet with a heater and pressing a mold frame manufactured beforehand with the shape of a pattern on the heated sheet with a compressor.